Dance

662 results
Page 52
Laura Feig, Ian Hussey in Neenan's 'The Last Glass': Our money's worth.

BalletX Summer program at the Wilma (2nd review)

On a mission to redefine ballet

Choreographers can please a crowd in one of two ways: Give the audience something everyone can relate to, or seduce them with a work that's irresistible. The two tremendous world premieres in BalletX's recent Summer Series provided one of each.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 3 minute read
Keating (top), Prescott in 'Risk of Flight': Who needs a story line? (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

BalletX Summer program at the Wilma (1st review)

It's all about movement

BalletX celebrated its fifth anniversary with a program demonstrating just how sophisticated this small troupe of ten has become within a short time period. It was especially good to see Matthew Neenan back to being his movement funky self again.

Janet Anderson

Articles 3 minute read
Gibson's 'Vested Souls': Find the meaning.

The dance season: Nine highlights

In search of honest generosity: A backward glance at the dance season

Whether because of the economy or burnout, Philadelphia's 2010 dance season was thinner and weaker than in past years, in terms of intelligent dancers opening themselves to the choreographer's vision and then channeling it to us. Merilyn Jackson finds nine encouraging exceptions.
Merilyn Jackson

Merilyn Jackson

Articles 5 minute read
Ochoa (top) and Torrado: Love without words.

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Romeo and Juliet'

Who needs Shakespeare?

Shakespeare may be history's greatest playwright, but the Pennsylvania Ballet's current production of Romeo and Juliet proves that we don't need a great writer to tell a great story.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 4 minute read
‘Requiem For a Rose’: Heartbeat or serpent? (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Program IV'

From the familiar to the experimental

“We Can Do Anything” should have been Pennsylvania Ballet's title for its May performance. In a well-balanced program the company performed works as wildly different and separated by time and choreographic sensibilities as can be imagined.

Janet Anderson

Articles 5 minute read
Samantha Barczak: Parable of regimentation. (Photo: Gabriel Bienczycki.)

"Braving the New World' by Rebecca Davis

Orwell and Huxley meet their match

Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World shaped the course of modern thought. But Rebecca Davis's choreography has gone those cerebral works one better, enabling us to see and feel how totalitarian regimes work in practice.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 4 minute read
Goodman (left), Cox in 'Carry Me': Return of a real-life mother. (Photo: Bill Hebert.)

BalletX's Spring Series (2nd review)

Xperimental and xciting, too

Feisty BalletX's Spring Series was sophisticated and polished, offering four new ballets, each from (mostly) new choreographers.

Janet Anderson

Articles 4 minute read
Colby Damon, Jennifer Goodman in 'One Word Play': Dancers as individuals. (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

BalletX's Spring Series (1st review)

Ballet for people who don't particularly like ballet

Classical ballet has become a closed and rigid system. BalletX offers an antidote, opening up ballet to new movements and new forms of expressiveness.
Judy Weightman

Judy Weightman

Articles 3 minute read

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Lorenzo: Like a terrified animal. (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

Pennsylvania Ballet's Chopin Celebration

Experiments with Chopin

Choreographers Matthew Neenan and Jerome Robbins both heard something in Chopin's work that suggested movements far removed from gentle early 19th-Century dances. Combine the three of them, as Pennsylvania Ballet's Roy Kaiser did, and you have an exciting program combination.

Janet Anderson

Articles 5 minute read
Jonathan Bowman, Laura Stiles in 'Carmina': Happy peasants. (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Program II'

Mathew Neenan takes (too many) liberties

Pennsylvania Ballet's version of Balanchine's Four Temperaments demonstrates that artists know more about life than philosophers. Matthew Neenan's take on Carmina Burana, on the other hand, tells us more about the artist than about life.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 4 minute read